Abstract: Objective: To observe the effect of cistanche and dodder decoction of traditional Chinese medicine on the tissue morphology and cell ultrastructure of ovaries of rats that are engaged in long-term high intensity exercise so as to explore the protective effect of the prescription on athletic menstrual disorder and mechanism of action. Methods: 36(3-month-old)female Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats are divided randomly into three groups: quiet control group(Q), sport model group(S) and medicine intervention group(M) with12 rats in each group. The rats in the group S and M perform long-term high intensity swimming and the rats in the group M fed with cistanche and dodder decoction daily. Ovarian samples of those rats are obtained after sports training for 5 weeks. Then the techniques of HE straining and transmission electron are used to observe the changes of tissue morphology and cell ultrastructure of ovaries. Results: Compared with group Q, less growing follicles, mature follicles and fresh luteum corpus (P<0.05;P<0.01) and more atresia follicle (P<0.05) can be observed in the group S, but more growing follicles, more mature follicles, more fresh luteum corpus and less atresia follicle are witnesses in the ovaries of group M than those of group S (P<0.05;P<0.01) . Under Transmission Electron Microscope, abundant organelles are found such as mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum and many lipid droplets in granulose cell in the group Q and M, but in group M, less organelle and more lipid droplets can be observed. Conclusion: The cistanche and dodder decoction can effectively prevent the inhibition of development and maturation of ovarian follicle due to long-term high intensity exercise, improve the ultrastructures of ovarian cells and promote the secretion activity.

Key words: traditional Chinese medicine, cistanche and dodder decoction, long-term high-intensity exercise, ovary, morphological structure